Alas Pilipinas girls are determined to save the best for last when they go for a top-five finish in the 2nd AVC Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship, facing Thailand anew on Saturday at Prince Hamzah Sports Hall here.
The youngest Philippine national volleyball team hopes to end its impressive journey as a fifth-placer out of the 14 nations in their final game in Amman against Thailand at 5:30 p.m. (Philippine time).
Alas had a short turnaround to recover from a five-set meltdown to Thailand in the Final Eight round, but it didn’t stop the young Filipino Spikers from dominating Hong Kong, 25-20, 25-19, 25-10, and advance to the Battle for 5th on Friday.
Alas U16 coach Edwin Leyva says a fifth-place finish would mean everything for a program that only had a two-week preparation, with players coming from different provinces.
‘We’re looking forward to playing them again so we can bounce back, especially since that match went all the way to a fifth set,’ said Leyva in Filipino.
‘During that game, we could’ve won the fourth set. We were already leading 2-1. But the players relaxed a bit. Hopefully, this time, we already know how they play, so we can prepare better.’
Alas couldn’t close out down the stretch against Thailand, but now with a bigger stakes, the Alas girls, composed of first-time international campaigners, look to culminate their run with one last win.
‘We’ll give our best and make up for the past few games where we didn’t play our usual level. We’ll make sure to bring out everything we’ve got and apply everything we’ve learned,’ said setter Resty Jane Olaguir, who scored six points against Hong Kong while pacing her team’s offense.
For Nadeth Herbon, it’s time to leave everything on the floor.
‘We’ll give our all and put everything we practiced into tomorrow’s game because we really need to win and bounce back from our loss,’ Herbon said.